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ARD Gala 2004 in Frankfurt

The opening was to some slow christmas ballad by "Boney M". It was a bit too slow for an opening, but it was ok.

Constanze Paulinus skated first, the same ballad from Sarah McLachlan as we had seen at Bofrost.

Then the Beiers' performed their FD, it was a good performance. I think their FD isn't bad, there are some parts that work better than others though and I think their music is a bit too much of a random mish-mash, but it is a nice program to watch overall.

Then we got a little break, because for the next 45 minutes the show would be broadcast live on German tv. The first skaters to go live where Abitbol & Bernadis with their new "Matrix" exhibition. It was quite an interesting program, lots of different stuff in it and it was entertaining, maybe apart from some rather random usage of gymnastic ribbons. And Stephane did some kind of "straightline step sequence", galloping towards Sarah with some of those ribbons, which was rather weird, but I'm not saying it wasn't entertaining, LOL. He was wearing sunglasses all throughout the program btw.

Lambiel did his SP, at the beginning it was a bit empty and jump centric (a common feature of men's SPs), but later there was good footwork and two of his usual fast combo spins that got a big applause from the audience.

Grushina & Goncharov did their competitive Original Dance which was cool (much preferred this to seeing Adagio another time of course). It is a strong program I think with very good interpretation of the Charleston and the Slow Foxtrot is also nice. I have to say though I find them a bit more impressive on tv than live based on what I've seen of them over the years, because watching them live I'm always overcome with the "Viktoria Volchkova effect" which leads to extensive thinking of the sentence "can't they at least skate a *bit* faster????". While I have to say that their speed during the general parts of the program was ok, but I think my favorite parts of their OD theoretically would be their two step sequences, both the SLSS and the diagonal have really cool steps, but they are so slow performing them that half of the effect is ruined, because it feels like it's just taking forever till they get from one end of the rink to the other.

Surya Bonaly did her "Lion King" program that I think I've seen on tv before. It was a nice program, but maybe a bit jump-centric, it seemed like a very long program and there could have been a bit more going on that stood out except for the jumps (she landed two nice triples or so and struggled with 2 other jumps IIRC). She of course did a backflip that got a big applause from the audience. her hair is pretty funny right now, it looks like a Grace Jones type afro.

Sawchenko & Szolkowy were next with a new exhibition to a French song, rather well known. They as always skated with good speed and flow, they did a clean throw-3salchow and a twofooted throw-2axel. It was a beautiful program and I was especially impressed by their beautiful pairs spirals. It was definitely my favorite performance so far. I think I like S&S so much, because they manage to be elegant and exciting at the same time.

Stefan Lindemann did a playful exhibition. I thought it might have been the same as at Bofrost, but Steffi said it was something new. As always I liked his flying sit spin a lot, because he jumps so highly into it.

Anissina & Peizerat did their Star Wars program next, they came out wearing long capes with hoods and starting to fight with plastic swords. Then they started to take of their capes/hoods kind of gradually, first she hers, the he his and it took quite some time till they had both freed themselves from them and they were lying on the ice (where Marina managed to skate into them while going backwards, but Gwendal saved her from falling :P ). The rest of the program was then mostly lots of lifts. The music was something dramatic at the beginning when they fought with the sword, but then went into some rather boring low key song for the rest of the program and then finished with a short part at the end that was dramatic again. The whole thing wasn't even remotely my taste. I think it would be really cool if they revived their Susannah exhibition, that is my favorite program from them and I have never seen it live.

Totmianina & Marinin skated their "Ave Maria" SP, which I had been hoping for, this is just such a beautiful soft program. No need to say anything else about it...

The German Champions in synchro (Team Berlin 1) ended the first part (and the part that was televised), they showed their LP to "Phantom of the Opera", that included quite some lifts.

The second part started with the obligatory "talented young German skater", this time they had invited Larissa Vetter, who is 12 years old and just won the "Jugend" category at German Junior/Novice/etc. Championships. ("Jugend" is the category that is one level below Junior in Germany AFAIK). I actually had already seen Larissa Vetter once before, 2 years ago at another gala and she had already made a good impression. She skated what obviously was her competitive short program, to an instrumental version of "My heart will go on" from Titanic". She had rather mature presentation for a 12-year old, skating with elegance and fluidity and used her whole body nicely in her movements. Jump wise the highlight was an impressively high and powerful 2axel and she finished her program with a nice double Biellmann spin on both feet, a la Irina.

Constanze Paulinus wore her LP costume for the next number, but she skated another program. I think from her elements it could have been her SP, but I don't really remember the music (have seen the SP at Nebelhorn).

The Beiers did their "Dreams on Ice", this is the 3rd time I've seen this live within the last 4 months...

The next part of the gala was rather...bizarre, LOL. Daniel Weiss came out introducing Matthias Bleyer (who just ended his pairs career with Nicole Nönnig), explaining how since Matthias doesn't have any partner anymore, they had to find someone else to skate with for him, so they did a "casting show" at some little local tv channel, where 10 girls who couldn't actually really skate (except for in public sessions) could apply as a "partner" for Matthias and the winner then got to skate a "program" (that was choreographed over the course of 2 days) with Matthias at the show :D I wasn't sure at first, whether Daniel wasn't joking and the girl would just be some real skater acting as if she can't skate, but when they started skating (with proper costuming and stuff btw, i forgot what the music was), it was obvious that she really was just some random girl who can't skate. Well or at least could hardly skate any better as I can. She could stroke forward and turn to backwards without falling down and "skate" backwards, while being "shoved" by Matthias"). However the whole thing (it was of course short, maybe a minute?) actually didn't look that bad and it was amusing without being embarassing or so. They did some simple carry lifts (at waist height and one where she was on his back) and some other stuff that didn't require actual skating skills from her and the show even included some fun "acting". We thought this was much more fun than seeing some acrobat (btw, I think this was the first ever Daniel Weiss show ever, that didn't have any acrobat/comedian/whatever) or so. And I think it was a gutsy thing to do for the girl. I got the impression it was some idea from "Hessen TV".

Sawchenko & Szolkowy then did their "Heya" number, which is a bit "typically Wötzel & Steuer show number", but I thought it was a nice contrast to their first program and also there hadn't been much upbeat fun music in the show so far, so it was fun to have something silly in between.

Stephane Lambiel then did a new exhibition to a song from "Bjork". It was a very "voidy" program that included some strange rolling over the ice from him. That was maybe a bit much, but apart from it, the program had really good moves and steps and he interpretated the extravagant Bjork song very well and with a fitting skating style. I also thought it was cool that he actually had nearly no spins throughout most of the program and only finished with two cool fast spins at the very end.

Grushina & Goncharov then presented some part of their FD (I think it was either the very beginning or the end), but unfortunately only a rather short part (seemed like it can't have been more than 1:30 or 2:00 minutes), I think it would have been nice if they had at least skated 2/3 of it or so. They started with a part to slow classical music, this was skated with elegance and good flow, but it was very open and had too many sexy crossovers interrupted by lifts. The next part was more dramatic and went into another diagonal step sequence that filled with a staccato of quick and good little steps . Unfortunately they again got very very slow during the step sequence though and the contrast in speed between the program up to the step sequence and the step sequence itself was rather extreme (especially since they skated fast and flowy during the "slow" part of the FD, to then get really slow during what is supposed to be the "dramatic fast" step sequence). Overall the parts of the FD that they skated here were too little to get an overall impression of the FD, but I do like that type of classical FD's. However I think (also from having seen the whole FD on a clip), the content of their FD does not really hold up to the other top teams, who all seem to have some more transitions. And if they can't skate all those step sequences more convincingly, I think it might be better if they went for maybe some less steps that can be skated with more flow on the other hand, but maybe they can improve this until the end of the season.

Surya Bonaly skated to "One Day I'll Fly Away", the ballad from Moulin Rouge. I liked that program better than the first one, even if it was a GFB. She did two backflips and I think she also tried some jumps again, with mixed success (generally she tried a lot of triples in the whole show, but only landed like half of them cleanly, but there were some nice 3salchows and at least she's going for technical content).

Abitbol & Bernadis skated to "Je suis malade", an exhibition I had already seen live at Art on Ice 2 years ago. I think this is my favorite program from A&B though, it is a well-choreographed dramatic program that is very effective and nice to watch. Beautiful song too.

Stefan Lindemann skated his LP. He had some problems with his triples unfortunately. The program itself is not a very "spectacular" program, but it has lots of nice details everywhere that makes it interesting.

Anissina & Peizerat did that Spanish Flamenco exhibition that I think they have been using for a while. I liked it better than the other one, since it wasn't lift-centric (actually there weren't many lifts at all) and there were several dancy parts (along with some fun posing). In the second part Gwendal did some Spanish movements while screaming "Hoy!" into the audience (which was funny, LOL ), at least it most definitely sounded like "Hoy" and that's what the three of us understood. Except for that after they had finished Daniel Weiss skated up to Gwendal and explained to him that "this would have worked in Spain for sure, but Germans need some extra encouragement" (or something like that) and then he himself screamed "Olé" into the audience some times with the audience screaming "Ole" back at him. Which uhm made us wonder whether what Gwendal had been screaming actually was supposed to be "Olé" too :confused: This certainly would make a lot more sense, LOL But it most definitely sounded like "Hoy" and if it was supposed to be "Olé", Gwendal has a most bizarre pronounciation :P

Totmianina & Marinin skated their known exhibition to "Your Song". It was beautiful as ever. They are so smooth and soft in their skating :)

Team Berlin 1 (who got to skate last in both parts of the exhibition, interesting) skated their SP to "Anatevka" that we already had seen in the Bofrost exhibition. It looked more polished and sharp than their LP, despite one fall.

The finale was some male christmas ballad, it was ok, but not outstanding or anything.